Why Does SSPP impose author fees?Open-access publishing is not without costs. ProQuest supports the free, unlimited, and immediate access to all content published in SSPP without any embargo. As such, ProQuest does not receive any income from selling subscriptions to print or view online versions of articles published in SSPP or from charging "pay-per-view" charges. Therefore, SSPP needs to defray its editorial and production costs by collecting author fees.

What do the author fees cover?Author fees are associated with accepted articles to cover the costs of making the final version of the manuscript freely available via open access. The author fees cover part of the costs of the following:

Immediate, worldwide open access to the full article text.

Preparation in various formats for online publication.

Peer-review management.

In-house copyediting and linguistic support.

Electronic composition and typesetting

Manuscript submission systems.

Journal hosting systems.

Customer service.

Editorial and administrative costs with unlimited space for figures.

Archiving, where appropriate, in an internationally recognized, open access repository such as the Directory of Open-Access Journals.

We also have many of these costs for all submitted articles that are subsequently rejected so must cover for those costs too.

How much is the author fee?The author fee for Regular Articles is US$595. The charge for Community Essays and other contributions is US$295.

Who is responsible for making the payment?The submitting author is responsible for making or arranging the payment and must confirm, at the time of submission, that they will organize payment should the article be accepted for publication.

When does the author pay the fee?Following peer review, once a manuscript has received editorial acceptance, the author fee becomes payable. Once the payment has been received, copyediting and formatting will commence.

How do authors pay the author fee?Specific instructions on how to make this payment will be provided to authors at the time of acceptance.

Do authors have to pay the fee if a manuscript is not accepted for publication?No. ProQuest only sends the invoice for the author fee if a manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Can charges be waived if the author cannot pay?We believe that researchers, their host institutions, and funding agencies can pay reasonable and affordable author fees in exchange for timely open- access publication of their work. However, we do not want fees to prevent the dissemination of worthy research. If authors do not have funds to pay such fees, we will consider full or partial waivers for those authors who, for whatever reason, are not in a position to provide payment. Priority will be given to submitting authors whose institutions are based in countries with low or lower-middle income economies as defined by The World Bank. Editors and reviewers have no access to information on whether authors are able to pay; decisions to publish are based only on editorial criteria.

Authors wishing to apply for a waiver must do so at the time of article submission by requesting a wavier form by contacting the Managing Editor at ssppjournal@proquest.com immediately after an article is submitted.

Is there funding available for author fees?More and more funding agencies are allowing grantees to use funds to pay article-processing charges and many institutions are now making funds available to support open-access publications by their staff. If you do not know about your institution’s policy on open-access funding, contact your departmental or faculty administrators, as funds may be available to you.